Governor Dayton's Pheasant Summit generated some fascinating copy, including an interview with Minnesota Ag Commissioner Dave Frederickson in which he talked about just abolishing laws that require buffer strips regulations to be enforced because preserving water quality and habitat just creates too many hard feelings.

Jean Wagenius has been a friend of family farmers in the last two years(and for that matter for a whole lot of years that she has served in the legislature) that she chaired the environment and agriculture finance committee on a number of issues, naming two of which are pollinators and “Forever Green”. She has been a strong defender of environmental review and gets that rural citizens should have rights to have a say about air and water quality in their community. Republican leadership acts like they are going to be bi-partisan but actions are louder than words.

Todd Larson and Macy Ashby purchased their home in 2008, and one of the first things they did was replace their furnace, putting in geothermal wells – imagine getting rid of the old octopus furnace, then paying only $10 a month in summer for air conditioning – worth it, they say.

For the past two months I’ve been furiously working to collect comment cards from Twin Cities area youth in support of the EPA Clean Power Plan before the public comment period ends on December 1. To curb climate change, the plan calls for nationwide emissions reductions of 30 percent by 2030, and would require Minnesota to reduce its carbon emissions by more than a third in that time. Together with my fellow students from Youth Environmental Activists of Minnesota (YEA! MN), the high school program of the Will Steger Foundation, we collected 649 comment cards supporting the plan.

(Photo credit: Forum staff) These green bins, soliciting donations of books and video games, look similar to bins set out by nonprofit organizations seeking donations for people in need.

You may have noticed a few new donation bins around the East Side. But you may not have looked closely at these green structures. Put out by the Greener Read Company, they ask people to put books, DVDs, video games and other items down the chute.

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